It’s FRIDAY! Woo! Here are some deals to take you into the weekend. Happy reading, and get good sleep!
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Be Mine Forever
Be Mine Forever by Kennedy Ryan is a KDD at $1.99 today only! This is book 3 in the Bennet series, and it has a 4+ star average on Goodreads, and 3.72 on StoryGraph. Ryan’s books are superb, with strong emotions and complex characters. Readers state that the emotional payoff for this story was incredible, though some grew weary of the angst on the way. Have you read this one?
From the bestselling author of Queen Move, a mysterious artist’s dark past stands in the way of a second chance at love in this sizzling suburban romance.
Can a secret crush . . .
Jo Walsh has loved Cameron Mitchell for as long as she can remember. Whether front and center in her life or on the periphery, the tall, brooding artist has made his presence seductively and irresistibly known. But whenever they start to get close, Cam pulls away. Jo’s tired of keeping her feelings in a box Cam is afraid to open. If he wants her, he’ll have to prove it. And if he doesn’t, Jo will need to know the real reason why . . .
. . . become the love of a lifetime?
How do you walk away from your soul mate? Cam wishes he knew. No matter how far he runs from Jo, he can’t resist looking back at the silver eyes that seem to see right through him. But as well as Jo thinks she understands Cam, the dark truth about his past is something she shouldn’t have to handle. Cam’s sure that setting Jo free is the right thing to do. Too bad his heart has other ideas . . .
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Watercolor Is for Everyone
Watercolor is for Everyone by Kateri Ewing is $1.99! This is part of a series that seeks to make art more accessible to everyone, especially beginners. I highlighted it today because last Friday I was at a romance event in DC, and when I arrived, Thien-Kim Lam was sketching while she waited for everyone to arrive. It was really neat, and since then, I’ve been thinking about portable art and trying to use watercolors. Reviews for this one are very positive: some struggled with the “woo-woo” that came with emphasizing mindfulness, while others found the exercises and projects extremely soothing and were happy with their results. Have you tried this book, or tried watercolors?
In this beautiful book, artist Kateri Ewing, author of Look Closer, Draw Better, guides you through a series of simple creative projects using a soulful, meditative, and reflective process. Whether you’re picking up a paint brush for the first time or are an experienced artist, you’ll discover and deepen your creative potential through these exercises, because everyone can make art. Each project results in two art pieces: one to keep for yourself, and then another one, such as a postcard or mini painting, to share with someone else or send out into the world, to spread their color, creativity, and joy in new places.
With Watercolor Is for Everyone, you can learn how to build a daily practice and how to set intentions and create, even if you have just 10 minutes a day. The projects draw inspiration from poetry, music, literature, and the natural world, and invite experimentation with a variety of sources, from tarot and oracle cards to rocks and feathers. You’ll pursue your personal passions through accessible projects as you build your artistic skills, confidence, and creativity.
“Written in a warm and inviting tone that is both inspirational and aspirational, this is an excellent introduction for artists of all levels to the rewarding medium of watercolor.” —Library Journal (starred review)
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Moonglow
RECOMMENDED: Moonglow by Kristen Callihan is a KDD at $1.99 today! This is book two in the Darkest London series, after Firelight. Moonglow was a RITA finalist back in 2013, and our Reader Challenge reviewer Fran wrote in her A- review,
Often paranormal romances (in my experience) end up using the supernatural elements as simple garnishes for the romance, but Ms. Callihan has her love arc thoroughly integrated with her world. She strikes the balance necessary for an engaging story without compromising the development of the relationship or the emotion.
Amanda also loves this series a lot and speaks of it fondly. Have you read this one?
Once the seeds of desire are sown . . .
Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy’s door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .
Their growing passion knows no bounds . . .
Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.
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A Lakeside Reunion
A Lakeside Reunion by C. Chilove is $2.99. This is a second chance romance set at a gorgeous and wealthy lake town in Florida, and it sounds like ideal afternoon reading when it’s sunny and warm (which is it not today so I’m projecting a lot, here). It has a 3.69 star average on Goodreads, and a 3.7 on StoryGraph, where readers say it’s lighthearted but emotional, and particularly liked the tension provided by family secrets. Have you read this one?
This summer, escape to the Shores–a Southern lake town full of elegance and glamour in a story about family traditions, friendship, and a love that can’t be denied–for readers of Sunny Hostin’s Summer on Sag Harbor
Chareese “Reese” Devlin spent every summer of her childhood in the lake town of Mount Dora, Florida, where her days were filled with fun in the sun. Reese never realized that the idyllic haven hid a deep divide between the town’s haves and have-nots. Not until the summer she turned seventeen and fell for Duncan McNeal, a boy who lacked the pedigree so valued by her parents and their equally well-connected friends.
After her family squashed the budding romance, Reese refused to return to the place she lost her heart. Now, ten years later, she’s back to attend her sister’s debutante ball and must come to terms with all she’s missed. But the biggest surprise of all is that Duncan is now a successful real estate developer in Mount Dora—and time hasn’t weakened the connection between them.
Behind the multimillion-dollar homes of the Shores lay old grudges and secrets capable of collapsing any family legacy. As the summer progresses, Reese must fix the sins of the past by facing the lines between truth and deception, tradition and breaking free, and family expectations and self-discovery.
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Touch Not the Cat
Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart, a classic Stewart novel, is .99! If you’ve thought about trying Stewart, this might be a terrific place to start, though more widely-read Stewart fans may correct me there. This book features telepathic people, family secrets, creepy houses – all the classic Gothic hallmarks. Have you read this one? Do you recommend it for Stewart beginners?
After the tragic death of her father, Bryony Ashley returns from abroad to find that his estate is to become the responsibility of her cousin Emory. Ashley Court with its load of debt is no longer her worry. But there is something odd about her father’s sudden death . . . Bryony has inherited the Ashley ‘Sight’ and so has one of the Ashleys. Since childhood the two have communicated through thought patterns, though Bryony has no idea of his identity. Now she is determined to find him. But danger as well as romance wait for her in the old moated house, with its tragic memories . . .
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I think you are linked to the wrong Touch Not the Cat – this one is by Tracy Fobes and is not .99
Y’all – why is Touch Not The Cat a popular book name? I just spent 10 minutes reading reviews of a book of the same name by Mary Stewart and it looks WILD. I think I need both cat books now. Has anyone read either?
OOPS sorry about that – fixed!!
I have read the Mary Stewart TOUCH NOT THE CAT, and I remember liking it (but then I’m a Stewart fan in general). I do recall it being somewhat unusual for Stewart in that there’s a paranormal element, so it may not be the best entry point for her work. I’d recommend one of my favorites instead, NINE COACHES WAITING or MADAM, WILL YOU TALK?
@SB Sarah No worries! I didn’t even notice! I went right it Goodreads before even clicking on the link and now you have introduced me to multiple books and I’m so grateful!
You are very very welcome!!
I am equally amused that there are more than one Touch Not the Cat titles. Though, now that I think about it, aren’t about 50% of all cats are ‘TOUCH NOT’ and 50% of cats are plotting complicated heists with half a brain cell? I will have to ask my two, who fall within these categories, to explain the species.
Thanks for flagging the error!
I cut my romance teeth on Mary Stewart, and Touch Not the Cat, which is one of her later works, is the last one I actually liked. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as the best starting point if you want a reader to get hooked. My entry point was The Moon-Spinners after seeing the Disney movie based on it. They are decidedly not the same. While I saw the film once, I reread the book many times. Not only did Stewart construct a tight knit thriller, she was a great travel guide to much of post war Europe. Considering that the Google was yet to be born, my mental picture of brightly sunlit villages spilling down arid, thyme-scented hillsides above a vivid sea proved amazingly accurate. Hence my personal favorites of her work tended to be the novels set in and around Greece.
One of my favorites, This Rough Magic, is interwoven with references to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, peopled by theatrical types reminiscent of Ngaio Marsh or Lucy Parker, and set on the Mediterranean island of Corfu. It has much of the appeal of Moon-Spinners, but its plot is even twistier. That would be my pick for a starting point, but you couldn’t go wrong with any of Stewart’s works from the 50s & 60s.
A new reader would do well to approach Stewart’s works from this era as though they were historical novels. Though I don’t recall anything egregiously offensive in her works, the social milieu and technology are very much of their time.
I’ve never read Stewart and usually don’t like paranormal elements in romance, but for some reason something in this blurb is doing for me, so I’m going to try it.
Last summer, I started watercolor as part of art therapy, and it is amazing, and I strongly recommend trying it, especially if you need a good stress relief activity. Personally, I like using an RNG to pick the colours for me and then just doing something very experimental, because I find abstract less daunting/intimidating trying for anything representational, and the RNG eliminates any choice paralysis.
My mom (whose idea of “romance novel” is Victoria Holt, i.e., no sex) gave me the Mary Stewart TOUCH NOT THE CAT when I was a pre-teen and I thought it was the most romantic thing I had ever read. I do remember, however, feeling somewhat betrayed by the ending.
My other favorite is her middle grade book A Walk in Wolf Wood, with two kids on a picnic who are taken back in time to a medieval setting to solve a mystery.
Recently, I hunted down a book I vaguely remembered about a kid traveling through different lands and meeting the zodiac characters, and it turned out to be Ludo and the Star Horse, which might be out of print. As soon as I saw her as the author, I knew it had to be the one I remembered.
I have read Mary Stewart’s “Touch Not The Cat” more than once, though not recently. It did keep it’s place on my shelves when I did a thorough weed before we moved fourteen years ago. (FOURTEEN YEARS, why the hell have I still not got a finished kitchen?!? I do love my other half, but sometimes his perfectionism is infuriating.) Anyways, as others have said, while it certainly has Stewart’s voice, the subject matter is unusual for her. It’s perhaps worth noting that her romances are nearly all (all?) also mysteries, so if that’s not your thing I’d give her a pass.
I read Mary Stewart a lot in my teens and I don’t think I realized that a number of her titles were from Shakespeare
Another Stewart fan here. I agree with @KitBee and @PamG — start with her earlier books and treat them as recent historical novels. A word of warning: everyone smokes cigarettes constantly (as they did back then), if that’s a nope for you. You can’t go wrong with any of them, though I tend to pick up MADAM or Airs Above the Ground when I want a fix. The Moon-Spinners was my first, from a spinner in my sixth grade classroom (unlike @PamG, I read the book before I saw the movie, but I was big Haley Mills fangirl back in the day).
I will say that I don’t care much for Thunder on the Right, which was written in third person, rather than first person from the heroine’s POV like all the rest of her books. And many people like The Ivy Tree, but I don’t like the Jane Eyre/Rochester romance, or the age difference.
TNTC is the first romance she published post-Merlin, and there is a paranormal element not in her earlier books. The books after this one (Thornyhold, Stormy Petrel and Rose Cottage) tend to not hold up as well, in my opinion.
Fortunately, all her books are now available in ebook form in the US (the UK edition, which is slightly different in some instances, notably in The Gabriel Hounds). You could only get her books in paper (and Wind off the Small Isles, not at all) until a few years ago, and my 50+yo paperbacks are falling apart from rereads.
My people! Yes to all the Mary Stewart books, except I struggled with her Merlin series. She wrote so beautifully and transported me to places I’d only dreamed of at the time. THE IVY TREE will always have a place in my heart. *good book noise*
SOFT FLANNEL HANK by Eliza MacArthur is free today at Amazon US. Another book I could have sworn was mentioned here, but who really knows?
LUSH MONEY (Filthy Rich #1) by Angelina M. Lopez is $2.99 today.
@Sandra I re-read The Moonspinners a few years ago and the smoking was so weird and off-putting. It tells you how much the world has changed. It happened so often in the story, it took me out of the book. It was really wild.
@Laurel: I know. Substitute cell phones/texting for cigarettes and you have the same ubiquitous behavior. Gives you something to do with your hands, I suppose. Fifty years from now, when everyone has brain implants, they’ll wonder the same thing about us. Although, with cigarettes, you could start a conversation by asking for a light. What’s the equivalent for phones? Do you have a charger? What’s the wifi password? How many bars do you have?
Return to Monte Carlo by Cate C. Wells (which I seem to recall @DDD discussing) is currently free for US Kindle readers.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CK2RJTJJ/ref=ya_aw_dod_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1
$2.99:
– Remnants of Trust: A Central Corps Novel by Elizabeth Bonesteel
Free:
– Winter Dads: A Crescent Cove Cozy bundle by Taryn Quinn — includes Have My Baby, Claim My Baby, Who’s the Daddy, Pit Stop: Baby, Baby Daddy Wanted, Rockstar Baby, and Daddy in Disguise
– Turn Up the Heat by Kimberly Kincaid
– Never Let Me Go: A Small Town Grumpy-Sunshine Romance (Trickle Creek Book 1) by Elena Aitken
– Wish I Might: A Small Town Southern Romance (Wishful Romance Book 5) by Kait Nolan
I also like Touch Not The Cat. I do enjoy that sort of minor supernatural undercurrent in some of her books though – Thornyhold is another of Mary Stewart’s that I enjoy, which is sort of similarly supernatural in a minor way but which seems not to be as widely popular. Since I first read the latter as a teenager I have, of course, always wanted to inherit a little cottage in the woods from a witchy godmother!
I would second recs others have already made for Nine Coaches Waiting and This Rough Magic as some of her best without that element though, especially for those looking for more standard romantic suspense examples. I think most of Mary Stewart’s books have aged as well or better than her contemporaries, and are well-written on the whole. Several are repeat comfort reads for me.
Free:
– The Cowboy’s Texas Sky (The Dixons of Legacy Ranch Book 2) by E. Elizabeth Watson
– Talon Pack: Box Set One by Carrie Ann Ryan (includes Tattered Loyalties, An Alpha’s Choice, and Mated in Mist)
– Shifter Wars: Supernatural Battle (Werewolf Dens Book 1) by Kelly St. Clare
– The Fix Up: 2nd Edition – originally published 2015 (First Impressions Book 1) by Tawna Fenske
– Runaway Love: A Runaway Bride Holiday Romance (The Monroe Brothers Book 1) by Lea Coll
$.99:
– Jane Davey’s Locket: A Hell Cruise Adventure (Welcome To Hell Book 8) by Eve Langlais
$1.99:
– The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
Peeps interested in clean historical romance–
https://www.freecleanromance.com/historical
TOUCH NOT THE CAT sounds fun — and is on sale at Kobo, too. https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/touch-not-the-cat-1
I cut my gothic mystery / romance readers teeth on Mary Stewart back in my early high-school days. Still to this day, comfort reads for me. Love love LOVED her stories. My all-time favorite would probably be “Nine Coaches Waiting”. Her Merlin & King Arthur series … chef’s kiss.